Immortal Child
by FemaleChauvinist
Summary: When Jacob comes across a vampire feeding in the woods, he's too late to save everyone. But what will become of the little boy who's just been bitten?


**Disclaimer:** While the attempt has been made to be medically accurate, some artistic license has been taken, and statements made by Carlisle are not to be regarded as authoritative.

Recognizable characters and plotlines are the property of Stephenie Meyer; all original characters and story © 2015 FemaleChauvinist.

_Do not post without permission. Do not copy/print without including the above disclaimer in its entirety._

_February 2025_

_Winnie five years old_

**Jacob**

I was riding home from work on my motorcycle when I felt my cell phone ringing against my leg.

We had been living near the Cullens since Winnie was born. Only one-fourth vampire, she sometimes got sick or hurt herself, and I didn't like the idea of trusting her to a doctor who didn't know her parentage. I also hadn't realized until we came back when Nessie was pregnant, just how much she had missed living near her parents and other relatives.

I pulled to the side of the road and shut the bike off to answer the phone. "Hello?"

"Jacob, it's Alice. Where are you?"

"Five minutes from home; why?"

"There's a family camping in the woods about a mile southwest of your house, and I just 'saw' a vampire traveling on a path that will take him straight to them. I don't know what will happen; it all disappeared as soon as I thought of calling you."

"But it's happening now?"

"Yes…and he was moving fairly quickly."

"I'll take care of it," I said grimly. "Thanks, Alice." I was a little surprised she had called, actually; the Cullens usually looked the other way when "traditional" vampires passed through, unless they seemed likely to expose us. Maybe it was how close the vampire was to Nessie and Winnie… I shuddered at the thought and quickly pulled the bike into the shelter of the woods. I ran a little further in before shedding my clothes and phasing into the giant wolf.

I never looked the other way, and I had only one way of dealing with vampires who killed on my territory.

I was too late. By the time I reached the campsite, the mother, father, and ten-year-old son were lying dead, drained of blood. The vampire was still there, crouched with his teeth at the neck of the three-year-old.

I snarled ferociously and sprang, catching him off guard. He was strong from his recent feeding, but I was angry and terrible; I kept seeing my Winnie instead of that little boy. He had no hope of winning against me; in moments he lay in pieces on the ground.

I phased to human form and lit the pyre with the lighter I kept on an elastic cord around my ankle. I had kept one there ever since the day I had a dead vampire and no way to burn the pieces; talk about embarrassing when Emmett found me.

I checked only to be sure everything was in the flames before turning to the boy. He was still breathing and the screams hadn't started yet; maybe there was a chance.

I knelt beside him and put my lips to the wound at his neck; I didn't have a knife to freshen the cut. The venom in his blood burned my mouth as I sucked and spat — I wasn't going to _swallow_ it, thank you! When I thought I had gotten it all I lifted him in my arms and ran for home.

Of course, it _would_ be one of the days Winnie was watching for me to come home. "Daddy, you don't have any clothes on!" she exclaimed in shock, pulling the front door open.

Nessie came forward quickly, stepping in front of Winnie to block her view. "Go wait in your room, Winnie," she ordered. "Jake, what happened?"

I laid the child in her arms. "He's lost a lot of blood. Do what you can for him while I call Dr Fang." I hurried to the phone and punched the number in quickly.

"Dr Carlisle Cullen."

"Doc, it's Jacob. I just rescued a three-year-old kid from a vampire. I had to suck the venom out; I don't know how much the bloodsucker drank before I got there."

"I'm on my way."

"Jacob, you should get some clothes on," Nessie said as I hung up the phone.

Right. I turned and headed into our bedroom, grabbing the first clothes that came to hand.

Dr Fang must have run straight across instead of driving around by the road; he was there when I came out more or less dressed.

"How much did you take?" he asked without looking up from his work.

"Three mouthfuls…it didn't burn my mouth after that, so I figured I got it all. Like I said, I don't know how much the leech got."

"Enough," Dr Fang said grimly. "Nessie, can you get another blanket? I don't want to chill him too much."

He wrapped the blanket securely around the little boy before lifting him in his arms. "You'll have to drive us to the hospital, Jake; I left the Mercedes at home and I need to stay with him anyway."

"Sure thing," I agreed. "I'll call you, Ness."

I unlocked the back door of the Rabbit for him and slid into the driver's seat. After my last tune-up, the Rabbit was running better than ever…not up to one of the Cullens' sports cars, but still a good way over the speed limit.

Dr Fang called the hospital as we drove, ordering them to have several units of AB negative blood ready.

"How do you know his blood type?" I demanded when he had hung up.

I caught his tight smile in the rearview mirror. "Smell."

Great. I wasn't sure I liked the idea of a vampire paying that much attention to the smell of a child's blood. "The treaty still stands," I reminded him in a hard voice.

Dr Fang chuckled. "It honestly doesn't make me thirsty anymore, Jacob; if it did I'd never be able to concentrate on details like blood type."

Dr Fang hardly waited for me to stop the car when we reached the hospital, carrying the boy inside at barely human speed. I followed more slowly, and glanced through one of the magazines in the waiting room.

Some time later, Dr Fang came to the door. "Jake? You want to come on back?"

I jumped to my feet, following him quickly. "The kid gonna be all right?"

"I see no reason why not," Dr Fang replied. "Thank you, nurse."

The nurse left the room, and Dr Fang pulled the door shut behind us. He crossed to the bed and fingered the boy's bandaged neck. "You got it all," he said quietly. He shook his head. "I don't know if I could have brought myself to destroy him…"

I stared. _Destroy_ him? This, from the compassionate doctor who believed all human life was sacred? "I thought you respected human life," I growled.

He smiled sadly. "If you hadn't gotten it all, Jacob, he would be a vampire, not human. And not just a vampire — an immortal child. Out-of-control, incapable of being taught…I wouldn't have had to destroy him, Jacob. In two days you would have been glad to do the job for me."

I couldn't argue, but looking at the boy, I also couldn't picture him as a bloodthirsty vampire.

"What about his family?" Dr Fang questioned.

"Dead," I said bluntly. "I wasn't in time to save everyone." I found myself suddenly glaring at him. "Tell me something, Cullen. How can you claim to hold human life sacred and still condone murder?"

"I don't condone murder," he said quietly. "If I had come across what you did, I would have done the same thing."

"Right. So if you actually _see _a leech feeding you'll stop him, but as long as you don't see, it doesn't matter?"

"Have I said that? It matters to me, Jacob, but I'm a doctor, not a vigilante…I rather thought that was your job." He smiled, attempting to make a joke of it, but the smile seemed strained.

"You have _friends_ who drink human blood."

Dr Fang sighed. "You've never felt the thirst, Jacob, so I don't expect you to understand…but I don't feel it's my place to judge them."

"I've felt it," I said shortly.

He raised an eyebrow at me.

"Nessie," I explained. "I was curious, so she showed me."

"Mm…the thirst of a half vampire. Magnify that tenfold, and _then_ tell me you understand."

**oOo**

"He doesn't have anyone?" Nessie whispered, cuddling against me in bed.

"No one," I said simply.

We had taken the identification from the boy's parents before burying the bodies. Edward and Alice had researched the names and discovered that the little boy's name was Dominic Harding. They also found that he had absolutely no living relatives, that his parents had been thousands of dollars in debt, and that they had left no will.

"What will happen to him?"

"Foster care, I suppose."

Nessie sighed, and I felt her fingers tentatively touch my face, afraid of my reaction. I covered her hand with mine to keep it against my face; whatever I thought of her idea, I wanted to see it.

Her thoughts didn't come in words, but a picture of Winnie and a little boy running and playing together…

"I don't mind," I told her softly. I realized now that I had been thinking of the boy as mine from the first moment I saw the vampire's teeth at his neck.

"Really?"

I chuckled. "Have I ever refused you, Ness?"

She pouted. "Yes."

"Not this time," I promised. "I'll talk to Dr Fang; he'll know how we can adopt him." Or forge documents claiming we had…

**oOo**

"We want to leave humans out of this as much as possible," Dr Fang agreed slowly. "But we don't want to leave their disappearance a mystery; if anyone happened to recognize Dom they could easily accuse you of murder and kidnapping."

In the end, Bells wrote up a newspaper article of how the little boy had been the only survivor of a bear attack — I refused to let her say it was a pack of wolves — using the byline Anthony Edwards. Edward fed it to the appropriate news services, and the next day it appeared in the papers. Dr Fang wrote the death certificates and quietly paid off the parents' debt; we wanted to remove any reason for humans to start investigating. Alice and Edward forged the adoption papers and saw that they were filed in the appropriate places. They even got hold of Nicky's original birth certificate.

We were sure nothing had been neglected, but we began quietly setting things in motion for a move. A mass exodus would have drawn attention to us just when we were trying to avoid it; we left one household at a time over several months. By the end of a year, we were gone.

The End

_I proofread all my stories at least once before posting, but if you see any mistakes I might have missed, please let me know! _

_Please note that I have internet access only once a week, and may not have time to respond to all reviews/messages. If you have questions regarding my Twilight alternate history, check my profile first to see if they're answered there. Thanks for your understanding! Barbie_


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